Packers eyeing rising offensive tackle prospect as draft nears
Nigerian-born Max Iheanachor could be drafted in the first round, but if he slips to the second, he could be the best player on Green Bay's board.
GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Packers have a good stash of young, athletic behemoths on their offensive line, but they always could use another. It’s why they have brought in Arizona State’s Max Iheanachor for a top-30 pre-draft visit. KPRC-2 in Houston was first to report the visit.
The 6-foot-6, 321-pound Iheanachor is a remarkable story. His parents moved from Nigeria to Compton, California, when he was 13 years old. Having played soccer in Nigeria, Iheanachor gravitated to basketball, in part because his high school did not have a football team.
His AAU basketball coach suggested he try football, and so he enrolled in East Los Angeles College to give it a try. “I mean, it was just after some summer basketball game, we just had a conversation in the car, on the ride back, and he was just kind of, like, advising me to play football, and he introduced me to the head coach at East Los Angeles College,” Iheanachor said at the NFL scouting combine. “Everything took off from there.
” For two years, he worked on building his body and learning offensive line technique. He started to draw more attention given his size and athleticism, and eventually landed at Arizona State. He started five games as a redshirt sophomore before becoming the full-time right tackle, starting 26 games his final two seasons.